


333. chasing shadows after midnight

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [142]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8593204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: “Hey,” says Sarah when she opens the door – full-moon-Sarah, vibrating and manic and her eyes starting to shine gold. “Moon’s rising soon. You wanna come?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [155\. neighborhood shadows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8585947) by [piggy09](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09). 



> [warning: slight body horror]
> 
> me, every few days: [rummaging through my Idea Cupboard] it's empty  
> also me: well what do we...do  
> me: fkjshdfing. fdksjf. i don't know. give 'em yesterday's drabble again.

Someone is banging on Helena’s door. Helena has to stop eating dinner and just _look_ at the door, Helena’s door, Helena’s door that is being knocked at in the middle of the evening. She stares at the door. It tells her nothing. Whoever is outside keeps knocking. Helena sighs to herself, stands up. _Full moon tonight_ , says a little nervous voice in the back of her brain. She pauses. She grabs a knife from the kitchen.

“Hey,” says Sarah when she opens the door – full-moon-Sarah, vibrating and manic and her eyes starting to shine gold. “Moon’s rising soon. You wanna come?”

“What,” Helena says flatly. She feels silly holding the knife, now, but she doesn’t let it go. “You are wrong by maybe twelve hours. You are supposed to be here _tomorrow_. And also in the morning. And also in my backyard.”

“Come on,” Sarah says, grinning in a coaxing sort of way. “You won’t get eaten, promise.”

Helena’s hand on the knife. Sarah outside, with all those teeth. Helena makes a noise to herself that is something like _mrr_ , scrubs at her face with her hands. (She sees Sarah clock the knife and then decide to ignore it.)

“Okay,” she says. “Let me put on shoes.”

\--

Sarah changes in her backyard. She folds her clothing in a neat pile on Helena’s porch – “Shit, I should do this every month, don’t have to buy another bloody jacket” – and then bounces on the balls of her feet in the middle of the yard, impatient, and

then.

Helena almost throws up, but doesn’t. She can see Sarah’s bones cracking and moving around and it’s not good, it is not a good thing, the fur ripping itself from Sarah’s skin, the way her skull is pulling back. Helena can’t help herself: she looks at the moon instead. She just barely manages to not cover her ears and hum loud enough to drown out the sound of a body breaking and remaking itself.

The sounds stop. Helena looks back.

She’s never seen Sarah like this before. She’s – _big_ , that’s Helena’s first thought. A silly thought! But she’s thought it, and it’s too late. Sarah is big big big, big as a car. Helena could climb inside of Sarah’s mouth and fit inside her belly, easy as anything. That’s how big she is.

Sarah pads closer, studies Helena with inquisitive eyes (gold) ( _gold_ ). She whuffs in a way that manages to convey amusement, bares all her teeth.

“Hello,” Helena says slowly.

 _Raff_ , Sarah says.

Helena reaches out a slow hand and puts it on Sarah’s nose. It isn’t the first time she’s ever touched Sarah – she checked her pulse, the first time, to see if the woman passed out in her backyard was still alive – but it feels like something new. Sarah is very warm. Helena can feel the little hairs on her muzzle twitch.

She lifts her hand up. “Um,” she says.

Sarah shakes herself out, stretches a little bit, and then crouches. She looks at Helena, and then behind her, and then at Helena again.

“Oh,” Helena says.

“Mm,” Helena says.

“Maybe not that,” Helena says.

Sarah gives her an unimpressed look. Helena sighs.

\--

It turns out it’s possible to ride on a wolf’s back, if the wolf puts up with you grabbing onto its fur as tightly as you possibly can. Helena crouches low to Sarah’s back and Sarah _runs_ through the neighborhood, under streetlights, into back alleys Helena has always avoided. Something howls in the distance and Sarah’s ears twitch; she lets out a response-sound, something between a howl and a whine. They keep running.

“Where are we going,” Helena says.

Sarah twists her head a little bit to look at her. She’s still Sarah, that’s what’s funny – she’s an animal, and she’s enormous, but she’s still exactly the same. Helena recognizes her. Helena recognizes the look Sarah is giving her: _come on, meathead, won’t it be more fun to find out?_

\--

( _Or we could just keep going_ , Helena thinks. It’s the moon, maybe, or the way Sarah runs – like she’s always been running, like she could keep running forever. Or maybe it’s just not being alone. Whichever. They could keep running. If Sarah ran fast enough the moon wouldn’t ever set. It could be the two of them always. Would Sarah leave her pack behind, if Helena asked her to?

Would Helena ask her to?

She thinks it but doesn’t say it. Her breath is a silver mist in front of her face. Sarah tips her head back and _howls_ and Helena understands it – or almost does. Something about joy, she thinks. Something about being alive.)

\--

Dawn, and Helena falling to the ground of her own backyard with every muscle in her body aching. Next to her: the sound of a body breaking down, sped up. Fast-forward footage of decay, and there is Sarah – panting for breath, hair a tangled mess around her head. She doesn’t say anything. Helena peels off the jacket she’s wearing and tosses it in Sarah’s general direction without sitting up.

“God,” Sarah says, and then a rustling sound as she presumably pulls the jacket on, and then nothing.

“Doesn’t it—” Sarah says.

“Y’see?” Sarah says.

“Yes,” Helena says. She does.

More silence, for a moment. Then Sarah says: “Good.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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